Trinidad’s LNG production rising after years of decline

Trinidad and Tobago’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production is gradually picking up helped by new upstream developments after years of decline due to gas supply shortfalls in the twin-island country.

LNG production at Atlantic LNG’s Point Fortin liquefaction and export facility rose 1 percent to 18.4 million cubic meters in the January-September period as compared to 18.2 million cubic meters the year before, according to the data by Trinidad’s Ministry of Energy.

LNG sales and deliveries from the 14.8 mtpa export facility came to 411 million MMBtu in the nine-month period, a rise of 0.3 percent on year, the data showed.

In the January-September period, Trinidad’s gas production declined 1.1 percent, averaging 3.29 Bcf/d in the period under review. A rising trend in the country’s gas production started in July and continued in August and September when monthly production posted an increase as compared to the year before.

Trinidad’s production has been falling over the past four years due to gas shortages in the country caused by a lack of upstream investment and upgrades to gas infrastructure.

However, new upstream developments such as BP’s Juniper project are helping Trinidad get back on track in reversing the negative trend in domestic gas production.

Another project in Trinidad, the onshore compression project, began operations in April, while in June BP’s Trinidad unit sanctioned the development of the Angelin gas field, which is expected to start production in late 2019.

Combined, the new developments will provide additional volumes for Atlantic LNG plant and help alleviate the gas shortages that have caused a significant drop in LNG production over the last two years.

Atlantic produces LNG from natural gas delivered from offshore fields north and east of Trinidad owned and operated by affiliates of the company’s members and others.

The LNG producing company is owned by BP, Shell, China’s sovereign wealth fund CIC unit Summer Soca and Trinidad’s state-owned company NGC.

LNG World News Staff